Mac's Conscience
by alicew in wonderland
Summary: I had the plesure to meet Inspector Mac Taylor when he was a Detective. He came in my office at the biginning in search of help for his problem with Aphasia, then it became something else: as the discipline wants, we began to work on his unconscious and his memories...
1. Chapter 1

_**Mac's Conscience**_

Preamble

As customary in the modern Psychoanalysis, I gave my patient the task of writing some important episodes of his life.  
I won't speak of Psychoanalysis in this lines, I leave the words of my patient do it for me.  
The results of the therapy on him has been a success, but it would have been more effective if he had come back to end the treatment. He got married recently and he is facing a bereavement in his team, for this reasons he stopped coming in my office for his weekly session, he told me that his wife didn't know about our regulars meetings.  
I'm publishing these memories as a revenge and I hope he will be disappointed from this.  
I want him to know that I'm disposed to divide the revenues that I'll found in the publication of the book, on condition that he resumes his cure. There are so many trues and lies inside him…  
He looked inquiring to know himself!  
Dr. M


	2. Chapter 2

**Childhood**

To remember my childhood to me means the to remember the first best period of my life.  
I was raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, in a different atmosphere that there's here in New York City.  
My father, a veteran of Second World War, was thirty-six year old when I was born and my mother was thirty. We lived in a small tiny house since I was three years, then we moved into a Chicago bungalow. It was a custom for a family man to build his home by himself, my father didn't, but he managed pretty well to renovate my grandfather's home.  
Being an only child wasn't easy, my school mates couldn't understand how it was to have some duties: my father worked as a machinist the whole day so, after my homework, I used to help my mother with the house, she had a part time-job as nurse and she was out from four o' clock to seven thirty every day, except Saturdays and Sundays.  
When my father was home he used to tell me about the war, his 6th Armored Division, the combats, how our Country has fight in Europe against Germany, but he always stopped at the beginning at the liberation of the concentration camp Buchenwald. I had discovered many years later, while I was solving a case, what he did for the lives of many men and women imprisoned there.

I've got three special episodes I like remember of my childhood: my friends Jimmie and Will planned to go to an abandoned factory after school and they asked me to join them.  
While my mother was getting ready to get out that afternoon she told me  
"I'll be late this evening! Dinner is in the oven. Would you please warn your father as soon as he comes back home?"  
"Don't worry mum! I'll do it!" I answered lifting my eyes from my English literature book.  
She kissed me on the cheek "Remember to close the door before going at the park with Will and Jimmie!"  
"I'll do it, don't worry! I'm old enough!"  
She left me at the table and she closed the door behind her. I rose from the chair and I stepped to the window in the living room. I looked out in the street, by pushing aside the curtain, and when I saw my mother turning the corner, I rushed to garage to pick up my bike.  
"Here you are!" Will exclaimed seeing me arrive "We thought that you wouldn't come!"  
"Sorry for being late!" I answered "My mother believes that we're going to the park!"  
"So you had to wait for her to go out before you did it…" Jimmie smiled "What a good boy! Are you sure that she won't discover the truth?"  
Will patted me on the shoulder  
"I think you need a new bike, Mac! How old is this? Two hundred years?"  
"We're losing time, bro!" Jimmie pointed out "We don't want Mrs. Taylor to get worried for his little Mac, do we?"  
"Stop that!" I yelled "I'm not an infant!"  
"Whoa! Baby Mac's going to be pissed off!" Will giggled  
"Like your brother said, we're losing precious time here! Let's go!"  
We arrived at the abandoned factory in ten minutes. Will opened his knapsack and he drew out a football ball.  
"Alright guys!" he looked at his brother and me "You two against me!"  
"C'mon Will! It's not fair! You're older than us!" Jimmie snorted "Mac and I are gonna lose!"  
"You look like a puppy dog and not like a man!" Will spitted on the ground "Will you two be with me for a delivery to Bobby O'Toole? There are lots of money!"  
"Sure!" Jimmie exclaimed "I think we'll stop steal candies for a while, what do you think about it Mac?"  
"I think it's good! At what we're going to meet up?" I asked enthusiastic for the news  
"Six o'clock out of our place and bring your bike!"  
At five we were back home and I wrote down on a paper that I was out for dinner with Will and Jimmie at their place and then we would have gone for a ride few blocks later and to don't worry.  
"Oh, here he is!" Will laughed "How are you dressed, Mac? You'll never be a businessman!"  
"What's wrong with my t-shirt?"  
"It's the same you were wearing this afternoon! Did you take a shower?" Will asked me  
"I haven't had the time to do it! I had to fix table for dinner!"  
Will looked at Jimmie  
"Go to the meeting point and tell Bobbie that we'll be in late! I will never show myself up to an appointment without him in this state!" he grabbed me for an arm "Get undress Mac and prepare yourself for a big shower in my garden!"  
"What? In your garden?"  
"Of course!" he smiled then he turned to a little boy "What are you doing here, Andy? That's not your place!"  
"I just want to help!"  
He was six years old and he couldn't do anything except depend on his older brothers  
"Well, go to Jimmie's bedroom, take the green and white t-shirt, a pair of jeans that is next to it and underpants"  
Andy seemed confuse "But that t-shirt and jeans doesn't size Jimmie anymore! Why do you want them?"  
"They are perfect for Mac!" he looked at me "He's still be the shorter of all!"  
Andy looked at me "What you want to do at him?"  
"A shower!"  
He took the garden hole and he stared at me  
"What?" I asked  
"How can I wash you if you still be dressed?"  
I took off my t-shirt and my trousers  
"Mac… You still wear your underpants!"  
"No, I won't take them out!"  
"You know who are my neighbors! Do you also that Mary Porter has a soft spot for you?"  
I turned red "Is she watching us?"  
"Oh yes! She's been there since you entered here! Show her what you have!"  
"Can't you wash me and close the matter here?"  
"Underpants out now!" he ordered  
"Andy is watching!"  
Will turned to him "You've finished here! Go inside!"  
Andy puffed and stepped in the direction of the door  
I was washed with cold water, luckily it was May. I was left naked in the middle of the garden while Will was taking a bath sheet  
"Mac" a voice called me from the next garden "Is that you?"  
"Argh!" I yelled hiding myself behind the tree "Yes Mary, it's me!"  
"Why are you hiding yourself?" she asked  
"Because…"  
"Hey Mac!" Jimmie called me "It's the opportunity of your life! Go to her!"  
"Have you settled everything?"  
"It's alight!" he exclaimed entering the house  
"Wait! Tell your brother to hurry up!"  
After that, I saw Mary Porter to enter the garden. I tried to hide myself better that I could do  
"So, that's why you're hiding! Am I the first girl to see you like this?"  
My heart started to beat fast, I could feel it against my chest.  
She was getting closer and I didn't know what to do  
"Hey, Mac!" Will yelled "Take this!" he threw me a small towel  
"You're kidding, aren't you?"  
"C'mon! Hurry up! We gotta go!" Jimmie shouted "Oh! Kiss Mary, she has been so kind to come here!"  
"But I'm…"  
Mary burst out laughing "You're so shy, Mac!"  
I got angry "I'm not shy!"  
"So what is it?" Jimmie cracked up "Are you hiding us something?"  
"He's got the size of a canary!" Will instilled that doubt and I decided to drop the towel  
"Are you all satisfied now?"  
Mary came before me "I am!" and she kissed me gently "My little Canary!"  
"Whoa!" Will and Jimmie scoffed at me.  
Mary winked at me and then she turned and left.  
Jimmie smiled "Well done Mac!"  
"Now let's go!" Will pressed "Toole is waiting for us!"  
We reached the room 333 in a hotel. We just had to give him some money and then leave.  
"Hey, Davis!" O'Toole smirked "Are this two learning something from you?"  
"Not at all! I had to sell the stuff by myself!" he said handing him the envelope with the money "They'll learn one day!"  
Toole started to count the money "This is not all here!" he looked threateningly Will  
"It's all you gave us!" Will replied calmly.  
Toole grabbed him and shook him by shouting "Where is the rest of the money, kid?!"  
I became worried, I understood immediately that something was going in the wrong way  
"That's what we got!" Will replied firmly.  
"Let's go guys!" Jimmie said.  
We turned to the door and we started to walk in line, but Toole grabbed Will again and he punched him.  
"Leave him alone!" I screamed. I was terrified and scared things turned bad so fast and Jimmie and I didn't know exactly what to do.  
"Get off him!" Jimmie shouted throwing himself on Toole "Get off him!" he started to punch him as he could, but he was thrown on the bed.  
I leaned out the door and I began to call for someone help, but nobody did. I realized that I was watching my fried die. I froze up.  
Jimmie discovered that there was a gun in the nightstand drawer and he grabbed it. He was ready to shoot, but Toole folded it down and the gun slipped cross the floor at my feet  
"Take it up, Mac! Take it up!" Jimmie screamed to me "Do it!"  
I bent down on his knees to pick the gun up and I pointed it to Toole  
"Do it, Mac!" Jimmie screamed desperate.  
I wasn't able to pull that trigger  
"C'mon, Mac! Do it!" Jimmie yelled again "Hurry up! Do it!"  
I was frozen, I couldn't move.  
Jimmie stood up and took the gun from my hands "Gimme!" he shouted pushing me away.  
As Toole tried to stood in front of him, Jimmie shot and Toole fall on the bed, dead.  
I was shocked and we drag Will out of there.  
"C'mon Will!" Jimmie told to his brother "Hang on! The ambulance is arriving!"  
I was paralyzed and unable to say anything.  
When the ambulance arrived, two cops took Jimmie and me to the next precinct and they called our parents.  
I was sitting alone in front one of the officers  
"Now, son, tell me what happened!"  
Jimmie and I had the time to fix a false version of the facts  
"We were there to give back some money to our friends, when a guy came into the room and he shoot at him!"  
"Cannot you tell me why your two friends were beating severely?"  
"He thought that the money weren't all there!" I answered  
"Don't you remember the face of this guy who came in from nowhere?"  
I felt that tension was gaining on me, just like tears, and, to hide everything, I shook my head.  
Jimmie was out with his father and Andy, next to him there were my parents  
"Mac, we have to announce to you that Will is gone!" my father said in a sad tone.  
I leaned with my back against the wall and I slid down to the floor  
"What happened, Mac?" my mother asked me "I can't believe you don't remember that guy!"  
"I don't remember him, that's all!" I yelled in answer.  
Jimmie sat next to me and he whispered in my ear "It's all you fault, Mac! You could have pulled that trigger and you could have saved his life!"  
Andy was looking wrong at me, but I didn't understand why until 2008. He had seen everything because he had followed us down there!  
He kidnapped me, he would killed me if my team and Jimmie haven't rescued me in time!  
My fiancée Christine knows this story: she read it in a newspaper, but I preferred to tell her the whole fact.


	3. Chapter 3

**Smoke**

I was twenty years old at that time and I was serving as Marine in Beirut. That's a fact occurred in September, a month before the bombing.  
I was on one of my days off, I was with two of my friends at the seaside  
"Hey! Let's have a bath!" one of my friends yelled  
"Oh, come on!" I snorted "We don't have swimming trunks and we aren't wearing our camouflage uniforms, how are we supposed to have bath?"  
"Oh please, Lieutenant! Don't start with that!" the second one grumbled "Let's in this way: a competition!"  
"What kind of competition?" I asked.  
He drag out a pack of cigarettes "It's a new one!" he smiled "If you're able to end it in thirty minutes, we won't have a bath!"  
"Gimme a lighter and I'll show you who I am!" I said mockingly.  
I started well, in the first quart of hour I had already smoked ten cigarettes of twenty  
"Go! Go! Go!" my two friends were pleased to see me struggling this that.  
When I ended the fifteenth one I began to see defocused "Alright guys! I give up!"  
"No! You were doing so well!" the first joked  
"Well! So, it's bath time!"  
My friends ran along the beach throwing their clothes on the sand and then they dived in the blue water  
"Wait up! Someone will steal your clothes if you don't hide them!"  
"Blah, blah, blah!" one of them exclaimed "Why are you so worried of everything? Just have fun!"  
I took all the clothes and I hid all under a rock.  
When I jumped in the water I was captured from a wave which pushed me against the reef.  
I started to cough and someone drag me away from water  
"Are you ok, stranger?"  
When I opened my eyes I met the ones of a young girl  
"Who are you?!" I exclaimed trying to cover me up  
"I saw you and your friends before and I sheltered myself here!"  
She was without clothes and her brown skin was moist, her long black hair was long and she was able to take refuge from my eyes behind it.  
"You haven't told me your name yet!" I said sitting in front of her with my hands on genitals  
"I'm Rashida, American!"  
"How did you figure out that I'm from America?"  
"You're kidding, aren't you? You smell of spoiled meat and smoke, where do you may come from?"  
"Alright, thank you for your help Rashida! Now I gotta go!" and I drifted into the water again  
"Where are you going?"  
"Out of here!" I answered  
"Wait for me!" she said joining me in the water "It's the first time that I speak to an American boy!"  
"Don't you like guys from here?"  
"Not so much! If you show interests in one of them you have to get marry and I don't want!"  
I smiled "Where's all the fun?"  
"It doesn't exist!" she swam out of the cave with me "Your friends are looking for you, you should reach them!"  
"What are you gonna do?"  
"I'll meet you on the shoreline! Don't take too much…" she paused a second "I didn't catch your name!"  
"Mac!"  
"Well, Mac, see ya lather!"  
I look her swam away to the beach and I sought my friends  
"Hey, Taylor!"  
"We thought you were drowned!"  
I reached them "Well, if I hadn't smoked so many cigarettes, maybe I would have been able to swim against that wave!" I looked in the direction of the beach "Now, you'll excuse me, but I have something to do right there!"  
"What's it?"  
"It's pointless, I won't tell you that!" I smiled  
"When you have that look it means it's due to a girl!" one winked at me "Does she has a couple of friends?"  
"No!"  
"Ehy, Mac! Is she Catholic or Muslim? You know that if you like her you can marry her!"  
"Please! It's not the right time for this kinds of jokes!" I retorted "We're going to have a chat! Nothing more than that!"  
I headed towards the beach hearing them say "Do you want do a bet?"  
"Yep! Do you think they'll shag like crazed weasels? I'm not so sure!"  
I didn't know what to say when Rashida welcomed me on the shoreline  
"I was about to leave!"  
"Luckily, you didn't!" I sat next to her "So, may I ask you in which God do you trust in?"  
"In your same God!" she sprawled on the sand playing with it "And, are you a soldier?"  
"Yes, I'm a Marine!"  
"Do you have an important military rank?"  
"If Lieutenant can be considered important…"  
"It's better than nothing, isn't it?"  
I lied down next to her "Yeah!"  
"Is Mac your full name?"  
"No, at the baptism they gave me a complicated name, but they have decided to shorten it on the registry office"  
Rashida smiled "What's your full name?" I looked badly at her "Please! I'd like to know who you are! Then I'll tell you mine!"  
"McKenna Llewellyn Taylor Jr. because my father is McKenna senior!"  
"They shortened it with Mac Taylor?"  
"Llewellyn as well: Mac Llewellyn Taylor!"  
Rashida busted into laughs "It's incredible! As promised, my full name is Rashida Zaina Khoury. It means rightly guided beautiful priest… What about yours?"  
"Son of the handsome one like a lion and my surname is an occupational surname meaning tailor, it comes from French it can be translated with cutter…"  
Rashida took my hand "Are you also brave and strong like a lion? Or you're only brave?"  
I smiled back at her and I squeezed her hand "But, why are you asking that?"  
"Because you're funny and the beautiful American boy I've meet until now!"  
"Oh!"  
"What?" she asked placing her head on my chest "You seems to be too shy! Let it go! You're just a boy and I'm just a girl!"  
"Do you want to know something? You're right!" and I kissed her.  
She sat up me, we separated ourselves and she said "We can't do it!"  
"Yes we can! Why don't you come with me at my base camp?"  
"To do what? To be your girlfriend?"  
"Don't you like the idea?"  
"How can you tell me to follow you there? You've being knowing me since two hours!"  
"What are we going to do, then? Are you planning to leave me here alone after these two hours?"  
She lied on me "No, because I can feel something different…"  
"So?"  
"So… let's go to the cave together! I cannot follow you, but… I think to want something from you!"  
"What do you desire will be given you!" I said standing up  
"I'm sure about that!" she moved quickly to the water "Here's the deal: after that, we'll never meet again, just forget everything about this afternoon!"  
I followed her "Why?"  
"Because we're coming from two different universes!" she took my hand and she dragged me to the cave.  
When that evening I got back to my base camp with my two friends I was sad. I shared a wonderful day with that girl and I've never seen her again and it all started from one of my vices: smoke.


	4. Chapter 4

**My father's death**

It was May 30 1992, a hot day, when I received a phone call from my mother  
"Mac, come here in Chicago! Your father…" my mother wasn't able to end that sentence.  
I knew of my father's disease when I still be in the U.S. Marine Corps, I remember that I hadn't believed when he had told me that he had been diagnosed a small-cell lung carcinoma.  
I called my wife Claire on the phone, it was also the day of my discharge from the Marine Corps  
"Hey Mac, I thought you were gonna call me as soon you would have landed in New York! What's going on?"  
"Honey, I can't be back for this evening! I had to book a flight to Chicago!" I answered "My father is close to death!"  
I heard the phone to make a strange noise, then Claire said "I'll take a plane too! See you at your parents' home!"  
When I landed in Chicago there was lots of people there for me: my uncle with my twin cousins, I haven't seen them for six years now they weren't no more two girls, but two women, my mother's sister and his husband with his pair of moustache. They were there do drag me home.  
When I arrived there was my father in a bed  
"Mac…" he whispered "You came!"  
"Of course I came!" I exclaimed holding his hand "How could have you doubted of this!"  
"Have you been discharged from US Marine Corps?"  
"Yeah! I accepted that job in New York, as you told me!" I squeezed his hand into mine "I promise, you'll be proud of me!"  
"The Mayor will be pleased to have you as his bodyguard!"  
I laughed "Actually, I asked him for a trial, but I'd like to join NYPD!"  
"You have been a brave Lieutenant, a great Captain and a proud Major!" he coughed "I know you'll be a great Police Officer too!"  
"Thank you, sir!"  
My mother entered the room and looked at me "Claire is here, she told me that she'll be in the living room with all the others" she looked at my father "Are you pleased to see our little boy at your side?"  
"Mum, I'm no longer a boy!"  
My father laughed "Mac, you'll always be our boy!"  
"I'm sorry for never have been here longer!"  
At that words my father exclaimed "The last time you were on leave, you should have done what I asked you to do!"  
I shook my head "You know I would have never done it, why did you ask me that?"  
"Because I didn't want to suffer this pain!" he answered "Millie…" he called  
"Yes, darling?"  
"Be sure to pay the gardener!" he looked at her with pain in his eyes "When the priest will be here?"  
My mother whispered "I don't know…"  
"Hey, dad!" I looked into his eyes  
"Hey, Mac!" he replied "Promise me, you'll take a good care of your mother and of this house. Sometimes you must come here from New York! Maybe, one day you'll move here with Claire and the kids!"  
"Dad, we got married seven months ago!"  
"But soon you two will be a real family!" he blinked for a while "I'm tired, I'd like to sleep a bit!"  
That were the latest words he told me. After three days he was gone.  
As I promised him I'm taking a good care of the house and of my mother. Soon I'll introduce her to Christine, my new fiancée. I'm scared because at the beginning she hardly liked Claire. What will happen with her?  
Would my father have approved this my second engagement?


	5. Chapter 5

**My wedding's tale**

This title you assigned me is divided into two parts: the first one will be the story of how I met Claire and how our life together was, the second part will tell how I met Christine and how it came up to my mind to make her marriage proposal.

PART ONE: CLAIRE  
I was back in Chicago for some extra Scientific course at College, I know I would have been there only a week before returning to my Marine's duties, that's where I met her for the first time.  
She was sitting on a table in the bar, she was alone with a big book. I tried to catch the title to know which subject she was studying: Finance.  
"Ehy you!" a boy said in my direction.  
I looked at him pointing myself  
"Yes, you Marine!" he said walking in my direction "May I ask you to move to another table?"  
"Why?"  
"Well, my friends are coming to study and you took up the largest table in all the bar…"  
I looked at the boy "The other tables have been filled!"  
"There's a place in front of that nasty piece of work of girl!"  
I turned frowning at him "Do you know her?"  
"Oh, man! Everybody knows who she is! The greatest high maintenance you can meet here!" he patterned me on the shoulder "I wish you good luck!"  
I stood up "Don't worry. I can handle that!"  
I stepped to the girl "Sorry, may I sit here? The other tables are filled!"  
The girl glanced up "Who are you? I've never seen a Marine around here!"  
"I'm Mac and I'm on leave to attend a course of Science here. And you are?"  
"Claire and I'll graduate next moth"  
I smiled at her "Congratulations! So, you turned twenty-one or you still have to turn it?"  
"No! I'm still be twenty. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"  
"Don't mind! I'm twenty-six years old!"  
She looked at me with her green eyes "You're a Captain, I can see it from the insignia you have"  
"Are you a passionate of army?"  
"No, my father was a Marine too! He was discharged two years ago after reaching the rank of Colonel"  
I smiled looking at her "Maybe I saw him somewhere…"  
"Do you want to hang out tonight?" she asked me motionless  
"Why not?"  
"Let's meet at Tribune Tower, then we'll decide where to go. Do you have only your uniform with you?"  
"You want to see me dressed in normal clothes?"  
"No if you don't want it!" she come closer and kissed me on the cheek "See you tonight, Mac!"  
Our first date ended well and after that she wrote me her number. I called her on Christmas, but I found out she was in New York to spend her holyday with her parents. I met her on the New Year's Eve in Chicago  
"So there you are!" she exclaimed when she saw me on the door of the pub "We had problems… next time leave a message with time and place!"  
"Well… it looks like we arranged it!"  
"Yeah, the place of our first and only date is a perfect meeting point…" she looked at me with her green eyes, she seemed to scan me "How was your Christmas?"  
"Well, I'd like to tell you I passed the most incredible Christmas ever, but it's not so… what about you?"  
"Major Mac Taylor!" she punched me in the shoulder "You're not telling me you passed your Christmas at the Marine's camp, are you?"  
"Yes and I went to bed at nine, if you really want to know…"  
She puffed "God! They treat you like kids! I'm sure you will change everything when you are General…"  
I laughed a little bit too loud, almost sarcastically "You think I'll be a General? No darling, I'm not an ass kisser!"  
"Isn't meritocracy alone enough?"  
"I wish it were possible!" I answered while a waiter put on our table two beers  
"Listen, why don't you follow me -somewhere- after we finish here?"  
"I'd like to know where this -somewhere- is…"  
"Over the rainbow…" she told me drinking a big swig of her beer "Don't you trust me?"  
I looked at my beer "Yeah, but I'm on temporary leave and… I don't know what to say or think…"  
"The new year is starting! We're together! What do you want more than that?"  
"Nothing, you're perfect!" I stroked her cheekbone "Whoa!"  
"What?"  
"You've got that something that I cannot explain…"  
"Does this work with all the girls you meet?"  
I hung my head "Actually, I never felt really this way… I'm ashamed to admit it!"  
"Sorry if I made you feel like this… the only time I trusted a guy it didn't end well… I mean, maybe if we're getting serious with that, it's better you know about it"  
I leaned on the table and took her hand "As I told you, I never felt this way before with anyone. You can trust me!"  
"When I was fifteen years old, I got pregnant and I gave up the baby for adoption… I didn't want to do it, but what life would have I offered to him?"  
"You turned sixteen before having the baby?"  
"Yep! My mother threw me in at the deep end and I understood that I wasn't ready to take care of a baby alone…"  
"And your boyfriend…"  
"He changed high school as soon he discovered I was pregnant!" she looked at me "Usually boys at this point used to tell me that was a pleasure to meet me and they leave…"  
"I told you I was different!" I took her hand "Let's pay the bill and then take me -somewhere over the rainbow-!"  
1988 arrived soon on a small couch with a blanket and some hot coffee in front of a huge window  
"Did you see it?"  
"I love which one that burst in many different colors!"  
"Claire, I want to make a promise: I won't run away!"  
She looked at me "But, this means that…"  
"That I'm yours!"  
"I was going to tell that you have to meet my parents first…" she bit her lip "Sorry…"  
"Where's the problem? Also my parents would be pleased to know you…"

In April 1991 I was facing her in a church in Chicago with our parents as only witnesses to our wedding.  
I was back after the Desert Farewell and Operation Desert Storm. I had a wound on a leg and I begged that none would have noticed it.  
"Finally, we're alone!" exclaimed Claire flopping down on the bed "I love your parents, but… it was a bit too much time with them… Not to mention then my father's attitude towards you!"  
"Claire, I have to be back to work soon…"  
"How much soon?"  
"Two, three days… I didn't catch if I have even on day because the General knows I got married…"  
Claire came next to me and bent down lowering my trousers "I knew you were hiding something!" he put her index on my wound "What's this?"  
"Can't you see it by yourself?"  
"A glancing blow of a bullet… how did you get it?"  
"A sniper who saw the cigarette from one of my fellow ten positions after me... That man suddenly fall the next day and broke his arm!"  
She stood in front of me "Remind me that you can be very cruel!"  
"It wasn't me, but two of my men…" I kissed her "Are we going to do -something-?"  
"What kind of -something-?" she said undoing my tie and my shirt "Are you going to be my prince tonight?"  
"All the nights I can be your prince, I'll be your prince…"  
September 11 put the word -end- to our fairytale.

PART TWO: CHRISTINE  
"C'mon, Mac! Hurry up!"  
"I'm coming Stan!"  
That was a cloudy day. New York has never been so gray before. Things were going well between Claire and me, I had left her in our bed that morning and I looked at her while I was getting ready for my job.  
It was incredible that after nine years enlisted in US Marine Corp. I had entered the NYPD's academy.  
Stan Whitney was my partner at that time.  
"Let's start the car, Stan, so we can start our shift!"  
"Hey, Mac? You're all right? It's seems you woke up on the wrong side of the bed!"  
I snorted "In some way, yes"  
"You don't want to talk about it, do you?"  
"Claire wants a baby, but I asked her to wait and be patient until we'll find a larger apartment with a low rent"  
Stan was driving and he nodded "It's not what a wife wants to hear… That's why I haven't made to Mary a proposal yet…"  
I looked at the street while he was pulling over the car "Why are we here?"  
"Do you remember I talked to you about my little sister Christine? I promised her to pop in here!"  
I looked at him smiling "Cannot you stay away from her more than twenty-four hour?"  
"I told you that she's so important, my older brother just moved when we were kids to Texas, he's something like a cowboy now, you know these ones with lariat and horse who like rodeos and that things…"  
"I remember what a cowboy is!" I punched him on his shoulder "Go to say hello to your sis!"  
"Aren't you coming with me?"  
"Who will answer the radio if we go out of the car together?"  
Stan puffed "You're right!".  
I looked at Stan to walk on the sidewalk and to climb the steps to the door. He entered and I waited patiently where I was.  
I saw Christine few minutes later hug Stan  
"Bye!"  
"Thanks for this"  
she laughed at him greeting "Ok, don't trip!" then she looked at in my direction just for a moment.  
Stan jumped in the car "That's the dinner! Christine fixed it for me…" then she said the name of the dish that I can't remember now (now Christine would be disappointed to know this)  
"So, that's the Christine you always talk at the academy?"  
"She'll have her own restaurant one day! Best cooker in the world!"  
I looked at her as Stan started the car. She smiled weaving.

Some time afterwards, I saw her at the precinct. I was busy in fixing some files and reports when she approached me  
"Good morning, I was looking for my brother, Stan Whitney, could you please tell me where he is?"  
I stood up smiling "He's out by now, he'll be back soon" I extend my hand to her "I'm Mac Taylor!" we shook our hands and I had immediately "It's a pleasure to meet you Christine!"  
"The pleasure is all mine!" she laughed embarrassed "Stan must have talked a lot about me…"  
"Yep!"  
She looked at me "It's alright? You have a strange expression…"  
"I must be tired… Stan doesn't like tiding folders, so he leaves me all the work…"  
"Oh, as soon as he comes back I'll tell him a couple of things!" she smirked.  
Immediately after she finished utter those words, Stan entered  
"Hey, Christine! I wasn't expecting to see you here today!" he saw her frowning look "What's up?"  
She pointed at me "Your partner Mac, here, is telling me that you never fix folders!"  
"Mac!" he exclaimed exasperated "You that's something I don't like!"  
"He knows pretty well, but you've to do it too!" Christine rebuked him as a child  
"I'm the big brother, you haven't the right to speak to me in this way!"  
"You should do your job as best as you can!"  
I was becoming crazy when suddenly I saw Stan's smile  
"I'm sorry Christine, you know that sometime I'm mad…"  
"Are you mad at me?"  
"Not at you! At my job!"  
"That cannot be only chaises in the blocks and questioning bad guys!" I intervened  
"Our shift is over, Mac. Would you like to join me and Christine for lunch?"  
"I'd love it, provided that Christine doesn't mind it"  
"It's ok!" she answered "I fixed something at home… At what time you have to be back here?"  
"Seven o' clock…" I snorted  
"What? Don't tell me you promised Claire to home for dinner!"  
"I tried to change my shift but the cop with I exchanged it got sick! Claire is gonna be mad with me!"  
"You see, Christine? You girls are so complicated!"  
"I don't know Claire and I just met your partner, but there's beer party next Friday at Milton Beach and I thought that we could go all together…"  
I looked at her a bit surprised and Stan reassured me  
"My sister is the girl who has last minute brilliant and fun idea!"  
"I think it's perfect to make it up!"  
"Claire will love it!" Stan smiled.  
Christine grabbed his hand "Let's go guys! Your lunch is waiting for you!"

On May 2012 my colleagues made me a profile on a social network, I needed it to solve a crime.  
When suddenly a friend request appeared. It was Christine!  
-Hey Mac,  
It looks like we're friend again. It's been a long time-  
That was what he wrote me.  
I didn't know what to think it has been a long time we didn't see each other.  
I tried to text her  
-Hey Christine.  
Hope you're doing fun. If you ever happen to find yourself-  
I stopped here and I immediately canceled what I wrote. Maybe I was only scared (maybe). I went on with my job and with the case I was solving till that evening, when I found on my profile a new email. It was again Christine. She wanted to see me, a part of me wanted to meet her too. That message was the perfect excuse to meet up.  
-Hey Mac,  
If you are free, maybe we can grab a coffee? I know a nice place in midtown. Would be fine to catch up.  
Found this great photo of us all. Made me smile.-  
It was the picture of Stan, me and Christine, to take that picture was Claire. I still remember that day…  
"Mac, if you don't stand up, you won't appear!" Claire had looked at me suspiciously "You're not already drunk, are you?"  
"But what…" I had hold back immediately "Honey, how can you think such things? Stan and I were doing our trip until an hour ago!"  
"Did you find also a new girlfriend for him?" Christine had asked "Because he is becoming depressed!"  
"You broke up with Samantha?! You didn't tell me!" I exclaimed  
"What do you want Lew?"  
"Lew?" Christine had asked.  
On Stan's face a terrible smile had appeared "Yeah! His middle name is Llewellyn! Your mother wanted a girl, didn't she?"  
"I told you I was named Mac Llewellyn after the uncle of my mother's father! They were Welsh and it's a Taylor's tradition to name your kids after old ancestors or close relatives recently passed away"  
"Guys, please, can we just take this photo and then discuss about old traditions?" Claire had saved the situation but she laughed a bit "Everybody say -Lew-!"  
That what happened that day when we had taken the picture and what came up to me when I read that message.  
I rushed to answer, I was sure I wanted to catch Christine and see what would have happened  
-Sure. How about tonight? Send me the details. Looking forward to it.-  
So we met each other. She wasn't changed, she was always the girl I knew many years ago.  
"Look at you! You're good!" these were her firsts words  
"Oh, you're sweet!" that was what I was able to answer… I'm always close at the beginning of a conversation, even if I talk with a close friend, but that time I was clearly hiding some embarrass too and it wasn't working very well.  
I invited her to take a seat  
"I'm sure I look tired…" I tried to repair to my way to acting of previously  
"Handle the Crime Lab would do it, I guess…" she was trying to make me comfortable.  
We talked about my profile that she defined -The blankest in the story of internet- and then we arrived to touch one matter that still hurts now, after thirteen years: 9/11 and my wife Claire  
"I didn't know she passed away" she paused for a while "I'm sorry" she added  
"There's no need to be sorry. I'm thankful for the time we had together!"  
Then she recalled that party on the beach, Milton Beach to be exactly  
"Do you remember? The music? Bear was flowering and…"  
"Yeah! I… I remember!" I cut it up immediately.  
We were completely full! Claire had stated to sleep on a sofa, Stan had collapsed on the sand and he had started to snore. My biggest problem had been to find Christine, she had disappeared leaving us three alone something like an hour before his brother ended his last bear.  
I had found her doing a strip up on a table  
"Christine!" I had called her "Come down immediately!" I had tried to grab her hand "I'm not joking, come down from there now!"  
"I'm just having fun Mac! Come here too!" by her voice it was easy to understand she was dunked. She had taken off her bra. It was enough. I had taken her from her hips and I picked her up.  
It hasn't been easy to reach our car.  
I closed Stan's car with the key and I went back to the beach to pick up my wife and my best friend. Definitely, the funniest night I spent out of New York ruined at its end…  
To return to that coffee, I told her how many things had changed… her answer made me think about how she was right, now I keep that words with me, with what the boyfriend of girl named Tory thought February 22.  
Christine that night told me "Everything of happened to us, it only made us stronger!"

The first who kissed the other one was her. I kissed her on her cheek after telling her about her relatives who were spying her "But, why we don't give them something to talk about?"  
Then she kissed and immediately after I answered to her kiss she stepped back "I didn't mean to do that! I mean I'm just blabbering… I just … I'll get our coats!"  
Of course I was able to mess things up, I had to stood her up for a dinner cause a case wasn't solved. The night after I show me up into her restaurant with tote bag  
"I'm sorry about cancelling, last night"  
"It's fine!" she answered  
"No it's not! I was dealing with a problem. Always our work comes first and…"  
"Yeah, I know the history!" Christine interrupted me a bit irritated but immediately after she smiled and I smiled her back  
"Have you eaten yet?" she asked me "Do you wanna me get something?"  
"I was thinking maybe we can make something together…"  
"Ok!" she exclaimed with enthusiasm "C'mon!" she invited me to follow her through the kitchen.  
That was really the first time I tried to fix a dinner which can be called that.

I messed up thing again after I recovered from the shooting. I hid my problem of Aphasia to Christine and I thought for a moment that it was too late for settle our relation. Fortunately, when I showed up in her restaurant, she forgave me for what I done. She told me that my pride was the most attractive thing I have, but also my weakness…  
We became closer after her kidnapping and on February 22 I realized I wanted to spend my entire life with her. I made her my proposal. I felt happy, embarrassed and for a while I thought she would have said "No".  
Now I'm happy and I'm ready for this new life with her.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Scarlet Pimpernel**

It all started November 15. I was recovering after I was jailed for the matter of Beirut.  
I heard Christine steps in the hallway and I stood up to open the door  
"Christine, I heard you coming!" I exclaimed.  
Christine entered our home with a guest. I recognized him immediately and I was surprised to see him in New York City, after all Miami is far from here.  
"Horatio Caine! It's been a long time!" I greeted him  
"Mac Taylor! I'm glad to find you ... entire..." he said looking at my buries.  
"Did you read the papers?" I said making him enter  
"Yes, but I did not know you were married and expecting a child!" he said looking at Christine fix the kitchen  
I smiled "She took care of me during my last convalescences!"  
"What misadventure you've lived before the case Beirut?"  
"They shot me in the back!" I took her in my hands a list of words on the coffee table in the living room and I stacked them to reorder  
"Join the club!" Horatio joked "Is that work?" he asked shortly after stating the words  
"I wish it were!" I sighed "These are the words that I cannot write anymore since I recovered!" I showed them to him "Usually, I delete one, two per month…"  
"It means that in a few months you'll be fine!" Horatio smiled "I was more fortunate than you then! When I got shot I thought I would die! I was saved for a nap!"  
"Why did not you tell me the reason for your trip to New York?" I asked rising  
"-The Scarlet Pimpernel -! The serial killer from Miami who started in New Orleans almost a year ago!" Horatio explained  
"He hit here in New York?"  
"Today at about 13:15... but they told me that your colleague, Jo, still has to go to the morgue for the report! The body was found only two hours ago!" he said explaining the situation "I met almost all of your team at work: you have a new computer expert and Messer is married to a colleague! Many things have changed since we last saw each other!"  
How could I deny that?  
The day after we started our investigation.  
Jo saw me advancing toward the room where meetings were held and stopped him "Even Stella has arrived and brought Adam! While Horatio called some of his men from Miami! I know you have studied the whole case, Christine has called me to tell me that last night! I remind you that you are married to Christine and not with your work!"  
"What did she say to be specific?"  
"To keep an eye on you!" Jo said letting me in the glass room where everyone was already seated ready to start the meeting.  
Adam found himself sitting next to me and he smiled "Hello Mac!"  
"Hello Adam!" I greeted him patting him on the shoulder and stood up. I picked up the sheaf of papers of the meeting and scrolling the autopsy report began to speak "-The Scarlet Pimpernel- hit first in New Orleans, then, Stella, you go first! You're the one who knows him best of all!"  
We started discussing how the killer was acting when Flack interrupted us with a letter telling us that the targets were Horatio, Stella and me.  
"We are dealing with an executioner!" I concluded by scanning the letter for everyone to see "Flack is right! The objectives are me, Horatio and Stella!"  
Horatio quitted work early because he was tired and a bit sick. I kept doing my job with Stella until late night.  
I headed to the glass wall that looked out on the narrow corridor between my office and the window of the skyscraper  
"Someone wants us dead and we must stop him!" I said looking at the street below with the comings and goings of the cars even though it was nearly one in the morning.  
"Let's say Sheldon and Isabella of disconnect!" Stella smiled approaching me "Tomorrow, maybe, our mysterious killer will show himself!"  
"I'm afraid Stella, but not for me!" I said hugging her "I'm afraid of what might happen to Christine, to you or to someone of the team!"  
Stella wrapped her arms around my neck and she assured him "We'll get him before just about anything would happen!" she pulled away and looked at me "You're too tired and worried to keep working! We are all it!"  
We went to the Morgue to tell Sheldon and Isabella to go home and get some rest.  
What I knew was that I was a target.

I entered in my place as quietly as possible. In the darkness I saw a black figure sitting on the couch.  
I put my right hand on the gun, I the killer was already arrived to me. I stepped back to the wall and with my left hand I turned on the light of the room and I pulled out the gun.  
Christine turned to me wrapped in her nightgown and she was shocked to see me with my weapon in hand "Mac what are you doing?" she whispered terrified  
I lowered the gun and I put it in my belt and I sighed "What are you doing awake at two in the morning?! You gave me such a turn!"  
"You didn't answer the phone, so I called Jo" Christine said to me terrified "She told me you were still working and that there was Stella with you, but she also told me to be careful and properly close the door!"  
I ran a hand over my forehead "Forgive me for all these mysteries! It should not be an easy thing to put up with this!"  
"Believe me, it is easy if you know what to expect!" Christine stood up and approached me "You just have to tell me what's going on!"  
"All the murders of the criminal, that I have to capture with Horatio and Stella, were implemented with the aim to gather all three in New York! We believe it is a matter related to a case of a murderess to which we worked together years ago!"  
Christine clung to me "It may be that the murderer has escaped from prison and is hunting you?"  
"I rule out this because in Florida there is the death penalty in cases like his one!" I said holding her "Don't worry! I will not let anyone hurt you!" I kissed her forehead and lifting her off the ground I took her in our room and I laid her on the bed "Winter is coming!" I said taking off my shirt and putting on a t-shirt and shorts  
"Yeah! This November is really weird!" Christine said stretching "Fortunately he's fine!" she said pointing to the belly.  
I lay down beside her and touched her belly with my fingertips "Thinking on his arrival always makes me happy!" I smiled and kissed Christine "Surely, it is the best thing that could happen to us!"  
Christine smiled "You become another man when you talk about him!" I laughed and put his ear on the belly of Christine "What are you doing? He is perfectly still!"  
"I know, but I wanted to let him know that his dad is still here even though he is busy with work!"  
Christine turned on her side smiling "He knows you're here!"  
"Tomorrow, you'll come with me in the lab, I'll be more peaceful when I can protect you in person!" I said rubbing her back "And you have to get up early! We'll bring my mother at the airport before! So it is better if you get some rest" I said turning off the light.  
The next morning I woke up my mother and I asked her to pack her things up.  
"What's going on, Mac?"  
"Mum, you will miss the flight if I explain you in detail. You have to go… I'm sorry!"  
"But you'll be a father in less than three weeks! What are you going to do with your wife? Are you going to put her on a plane too?"  
I felt my heart beating faster for three seconds "I… I don't know what to do… I don't what her to get involved!"  
"Mac, you have to find this man faster as you can, you have to do it for the sake of your family! There's me too in your family, but especially for your son, McKenna"  
"How do you know that we decided to call him after dad?"  
"It's not a mystery… I talked to Christine!" she put one last thing in her luggage "I'm ready! Shall we go?"  
"Christine is out here, she'll come with us!"  
After I saw my mother passing the gate, I took Christine' hand and she squeezed it strong.

We reached the precinct. Flack was sitting at his desk with Jaime at his side  
"Don, is a serious thing! It was not a simple robbery!" she retorted to him "You're the one who told me that Mac is chasing the Scarlet Pimpernel!"  
"How can you say that it was the Scarlet Pimpernel?" he snorted  
Jaime slammed on the table a clear plastic bag containing a scarlet pimpernel "Are you satisfied? Send it to the lab now!"  
Christine and I found ourselves witness to the scene and Flack jumped to his feet "Detective Chief Taylor!"  
Jaime joined him "Chief!"  
I smiled "I will be officially promoted within a week! Remember that the relationship between us should not change, so I'm still Mac!"  
Christine blinked at me "You didn't tell it to me!"  
"Now you know it, but I still continuing to do my job as before, only with more responsibility and I have to give an account to all other Bureau!" I said crossing my arms  
"And when were you planning to tell me it?" Christine asked putting her hands on her hips  
"I wanted to talk with you, but there has not been the right opportunity!" I defended myself.  
Flack saw Adam at the entrance of the precinct. Adam stepped shivering in the room and slid to Flack's feet who rushed to his rescue as soon seeing him not steady on his feet.  
I came to Flack's aid and I lifted up Adam's head "Stay awake! Adam hold on, do not give up!"  
Jaime was already calling 911 "Detective Lovato! I need an ambulance immediately to precinct 12!"  
Adam continued to tremble "The Pimpernel took Stella, Mac! Please save her!"  
I was scared because Stella was my best friend and Adam's girlfriend. I nodded at him "Don't worry, Adam! I'll find her!" I took his hand and I felt it was almost frozen, I touched his clothes and I found them wet "Don we need to warm him! He risks hypothermia!"  
"I undress me! You take off the clothes to him!" Don said to him taking off his jacket.  
Christine leaned with Jaime on Adam to help Mac  
"The ambulance is coming, hold on!" Jaime whispered to him.  
When the ambulance took away Adam I promised him to do my best and I went on with the case.  
Angela found out that who was betraying us was doing it as a revenge on the predecessors of Horatio, Stella and me who in the 80s arrested a serial killer called by the code name -The White Rose-, a contract killer for the government. When she became too dangerous, she was arrested in Florida and sentenced to the death penalty! There were no official papers, just a secret file stored in three copies in the archives in NYPD, New Orleans and Miami. Two of the predecessors as head of Crime Labs were dead. I knew from Angela that my processor was alive, but he retired the day I joined the Crime Lab.  
We discovered the technique of the -White Rose-. I decided to don't leave Christine alone. I could have been the second one to disappear.  
I went on November 29 I paid a visit to Adam in his hospital room. I hadn't found Stella and I communicated it to him.  
"Stella is still alive, Adam. Whoever next will be taken, however, he will not be so lucky!" I explained him  
"The next he takes, he dies?!" Adam shuddered "When he's going to kill Stella?"  
"From what I know, when Horatio and I are gonna be both dead!" I said frowning "It's a revenge that provides a sneaky role-playing and for the moment we're still playing by the rules of the Pimpernel!"  
Adam had an idea "We will play with the -rules of Adam- as soon as I get out of here!" I peered at him "Let's have a meeting as soon as I get out of here!" Adam went on with a cynical smile "The Pimpernel will have big surprises from us!"

When I went back to the lab I heard Jo exclaim taking her cellphone "I'll call Mac, he must know it!"  
"What I must know?" I said appearing behind my team and seeing the monitor "Our tipster is not a good Samaritan!" I mused staring at that -You've got two hours!- the whole message was a request of money to know something about Stella and the Pimpernel "How long does it take to put together that amount?"  
Danny rolled his eyes "Do you want to give in to blackmail?"  
"He has locked the entire system to us, I want to take him and to do that I want to use this opportunity!" I exclaimed pointing at the screen "I will wring out him with more confidence if he is here in the precinct!" I turned to Jo "The meeting is postponed until tomorrow! Adam will give us a hand with the case and I want him to be properly informed!" I took by the way Jo and I whispered her "I'm going effort to secure Christine!"  
"How long will it take you?" she asked  
"No more than two hours..." I said "Put the amount together, I warn Flack because he and his men will be ready! I want the informer alive!"  
Christine and I got off the train that had brought us to Staten Island, she did not speak and remained to observe my suspicious look on anyone who would lay for too long time.  
We walked for a few blocks, until reaching the colonial house that we had purchased  
"Soon will come an escort too!" I said looking at the eyes of Christine a bit worried  
"Mac!" Christine whispered pointing to a letter hanging with a red velvet rope to the handle of the door, I took it after I slipped latex gloves and began to read by sharing information with my wife  
**_-Welcome home! _**  
**_I know everything about you! You can't run away! _**  
**_No place will be safe! I will find you wherever you go!_**  
**_The Scarlet Pimpernel-_**  
I shivered "He is anticipating us!"  
"What do we do now?" Christine asked "Are we the next in his plan?"  
There was a gunshot. I protected Christine by forcing her with a maneuver in to crouch on the ground.  
Not hearing other shots, I stood up and, while remaining in front of Christine, I observed the hole left by the bullet in the wall of the house. I looked around, but everything was quiet. I took the pliers and I pulled out the bullet from the wall, it was of large caliber. I realized that could be opened and I pulled out a metal capsule inside which contained a message written on a slip of paper: _"You'll find it out soon."_  
I became pale and looked around for the exact point from which the Pimpernel was watching them "Christine, stay close to me!" I said taking her hand "Stay behind me and call Jo!" I said passing the phone.  
After Christine was safe, I searched all the roofs and with Horatio I found gunpowder on the terrace of one of the skyscrapers and I had been able to identify a potential weapon  
"Someone stole an M40 to shoot!" I said to Horatio showing the search result "He could have killed me with one shot!"  
"He didn't do it because he wanted to scare you and send you a message!" Horatio replied noting the gunshot residue "No cartridge case?"  
I shook my head "He's really good to get rid of his tracks!"  
"I wanted to tell you that I have to return in Miami for a while!" Horatio said with a sigh "My son is back in license and I wanted to spend time with him since my hour seems close!" I was shaken from it "You're not stupid! You understood everything!" Horatio retorted "Today's event has made it clear enough that he wants to keep for last!"  
I asked him if his colleague would have retuned too, but he answered she was more useful here with us.  
"Be careful and don't get yourself caught!" I greeted him  
"I'll do my best!" he said leaving.

The next day in the Lab, Adam showed him up and he started to work on the case.  
The morning was passing quite since Reed, my step son, appeared in my office asking to Christine to leave for a while.  
As soon as Christine left, he slammed on my desk a folder about a man I discovered was Reed's father: Reynolds.  
He asked me who was him, but I hadn't had the time to answer. He showed me some pictures of the interrogation room  
"That's you and the man you're questioning here is my father!" he looked at me angry "I received a flash drive this morning. I came here only to tell you are a son of a bitch!"  
"Reed, you're mad now and you cannot understand what you're saying! The Scarlet Pimpernel is trying to steal me off my relationships!"  
"Say it again fuckface! You're a liar!" he took his way to leave and I followed him to stop him to put everything in order  
"Reed! Wait! Let me explain!" I cried  
"You lied to me! What else should I know? The truth is put down in black and white on that file that your dangerous serial killer gave me!" Reed retorted loudly "My father is alive and is in jail because you put him there!"  
"I know your father very well! Reynolds is a thief, a drug dealer and a criminal!" I explained to him  
"But you didn't tell me that! You could tell me that you found out he was my father!"  
"I thought it was the right thing to do!" I retorted  
Reed bit his lip and before he turned he said "You know what, Mac? Screw you!"  
As soon as Reed went, I punched the wall leaving the sign and a trickle of blood came out of the knuckles of my right hand.  
Jo had seen the scene and she approached me in the hallway "I understand your position Mac, but don't tell him nothing was stupid! Now the Pimpernel will use your reaction as a weapon!"  
I sighed "Forgive my behavior, it is as if the whole world was falling apart on me!"  
Jo hugged me "We're all here to help you and then you have Christine and your son!"  
I hugged her "I don't want to lose Reed!"  
"I understand! You'll see that he will switch it! He just needs to metabolize what happened!" Jo smiled  
"I really hope you're right!" I commented and I walked to the lab where Danny and Lindsay were watching the scene and I asked them news about our case. After that, I run the meeting, but none of the members of my team had been able to reach any result. Danny and Lindsay offered me a Christine a safe place where we could rest at the end of it.  
Suddenly, a delivery boy knocked on the glass door carrying a long rectangular package and entered the room "I have a delivery for Detective Mac Taylor!"  
I was impressed "It's me! Who is the sender?" I said noting that there was no name on the card  
"Detective, I just do deliveries! I don't know truly what to say!" the boy said sadly.  
I stared at the package on the table for a few seconds until I decided to open it, I discarded the paper and then I opened the cardboard box "Oh my God!" I said trembling "He got also Horatio!"  
"What?" Danny asked in surprise "What's in that package?" I handed the pack to Danny and went out into the corridor, I was too worried to tell him that it was an arm and it could belong to Horatio by the wristwatch.  
I explained to Christine how the things were evolving and when Jo entered my office I asked her to help me with FBI in order to register Christine in the Witness Protection Program.  
Christine looked at me when Jo left, she started to cry by saying "I want to stay with you! Don't send me away!"  
"Don't cry! I want to protect you! You'll be fine with the baby! You will make it even without me!"  
"But it's also your son! I don't want you ... we ... "she sobbed loudly and I took her in my arms "Don't leave me Mac! I don't want it!"  
"I love you Christine!" I cried holding her "I wouldn't it to end like this! There is no other solution! I want your own sake!"  
It was the right thing to do! I had to do it!  
It was all fixed, everything would have implemented that night: a fictitious car crash, while Christine was on a plane for New Jersey  
"This means that you two will never see each other again! Mac Are you sure about what you're doing?" Jo asked me after telling me that everything was ready.  
"Yes, I'm sure!" I said looking Christine  
"I'm not sure!" Christine objected "You cannot ask me to live with our son away from you knowing you're in danger!"  
"I do not want you to be in danger too, my love!" I explained "I'll protect you at any cost!"  
"We are going to be both at stake, Mac!" Christine said sobbing "I want to share every day of my life with you!"  
"Even I would like doing it!" I sighed  
"Christine" Jo interjected "It's the only way that you have as Mac to be sure that you and your son are safe! When the Pimpernel will be brought to justice, perhaps, you will come back together!"  
Sheldon walked over to Christine "Everything will be alright! Mac will be fine and you too!"  
"They will pass below the entrance at eleven p.m. This midnight you'll be on a plane to your new life!" Jo said.  
Christine sighed and nodded sadly, I took her hand "We will spend the time we have left together!"  
"We'll leave you alone!" Sheldon smiled melancholy coming out with Jo.  
That hours alone in my office passed fast and I couldn't believe how the time was flying.  
Lindsay entered my office, it was almost time to go and I was attacked by doubts, she assured me on the fact I was acting good, than even Danny arrived on the door "Mac, Flack called! There is a message of Pimpernel for you in audio format, he has already examined it and it seems that Stella and Horatio are both alive!" then he turned Christine "I have orders to take you down when you're ready!"  
"Soon I'll come!" Christine said running a hand through her hair and seeing Danny leave. She turned to me and I looked at her "We have to say goodbye!"  
"I'm not good at these things!" I took her hand and hugged her "This is not a goodbye!"  
"No! It's a see you soon!" Christine smiled with tears in her eyes "I'm ready!" she said turning to Lindsay  
"Well! I'll accompany you to Danny!" she said going out followed by Christine  
"Wait!" I said taking her hand "When he'll be born, promise me that somehow you'll make me know it!"  
"And you have to take care of my parents and tell them that I love them!"  
"Discovering you dead in a car crash will be a shock to them!" I told her "I'll be close to your parents! I promise you that!" and I kissed her gently on the lips "Now go!"  
Christine turned one last time just past the door, looking at me smile at her.  
I had to keep on the investigation and I saw Adam struggling at one of the computers. He was staring at a frame of Stella  
"I'll find you! Whatever it costs, I'll find you!"  
I suddenly appeared behind him "I promised you that we would have found her and we will do it!" Adam gasped "Let me hear the audio recording" I continued  
"Actually, it's a video! Danny must have been confused!" Adam said "I'll tell you lather about the personality of our subject! We now know with certainty that it is a woman!" he said bringing back the video to the beginning.  
Watching Stella and Horatio in this conditions made me shiver. It was easy to understand that our killer was playing with movie quotes from -Saw- .  
The video abruptly interrupted and I saw a small white writing in the background  
"Back slightly backward Adam!"  
The writing was another message:  
**_-Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?- _**  
Adam felt a surge of anger "If that bitch touches her, I swear that I'll rip the shit out of her!"  
"You wouldn't be able!" Flack replied laughing "She has put you in a freezer! You forgot it?"  
Adam turned with the chair to Flack who was standing leaning against the door "What I wouldn't be able to do?"  
"Adam, calm down!" I intimated  
"Fucking Detective first grade!" he growled through clenched teeth  
"What!" Flack replied "Now I'll fix you Ross!"  
Adam rushed like a fury upon Flack, hitting him repeatedly with kicks and punches that were not going to sign  
"Stop it now!" I ordered standing up and trying to get in the way "The first of you who throws a punch to me is off the case!"  
"I know you won't suspends none of us because you need us, who do you think you're misleading, you fool?!" Flack yelled pulling a punch that I dodged and ended straight on the nose of Adam  
"You made me really pissed off, Flack!" Adam said trying to get to get his hands around the neck of Flack without regard of me who lay between them.  
Hawkes, seeing the scene from outside, broke into the office and took Adam from behind, allowing me to focus on stopping Flack  
"Stop it now!" I ordered imperative  
"He started it!" Adam thundered  
"I teased you! You're the one who insulted me!" Flack retorted  
"Does it seems the best way to fix things in your opinion?" Hawkes asked "You look like two kids at kindergarten!"  
"Think yourself lucky I won't write anything about what just happened and I cannot remove you from the case!" Mac said letting go Flack "Now let's work!"  
We talked about the video and then I saw Reed on the door. He wanted to apologize for his reaction we were having one of that moments -Father/Son- when the phone rang.  
Detective Bowen, an Homicide Detective, informed me about a car accident were Christine was involved. The plan to seek Christine had started and I was required to identify the body.

In the Morgue I found also Christine parents  
"Mac, is that her?" Christine's mother asked me.  
Her husband tried to read my thoughts, but he didn't succeed because he asked me "Answer at her, Mac!"  
I took a deep breath "Yes, it's her!"  
"How did it take place?" Mr. Whitney asked me  
"She was on the cub, the car behind reared-end in it and the cub turned left with an angle of 98° and another car, from the opposite lane, crashed in it and finally fire started!" I wasn't able to cry but it hurt me not telling them the truth.  
"I want to see her!"  
"Mrs. Whitney, I don't think it's a good idea. I felt sick when I had to identify the remains of Christine! I need to get out of here and you should go home, I promise you I'll catch up with you there!"  
My father-in-low seemed to understand and he carried out his wife.  
When I got out I had reached at the bar at ten minutes by car from the lab. I saw a man with a beard who was staring at me and approached him "Andy?"  
"We meet again Mac!" the man smiled "My condolences for your wife! It must be terrible to be left alone for a second time!"  
"You should be in jail!"  
"Sorry Mac! I won't come back there!" he smiled malicious trying to adjust his shirt  
"What are you hiding under the shirt?"  
"Take me to the crime lab or I won't tell you anything about the Pimpernel!" he replied  
"First tell me what you have under there!"  
"A bomb, the timer is activated as soon the one there dumped me out of the car. The only way I can unlock it and save my ass is going to the 5885 Broadway!"  
We reached the building of the Crime Lab and I put out my gun by saying "Now the bomb is disabled, but, if you want to be sure to survive, come down and enter inside with me! We need to have a chat!"  
Everyone knew that Andrew Davis had escaped and they found also a message for me written by him. Andy explained us that the Pimpernel wanted him to escape to leave me a message. He was scared and I think that that time he hadn't meant to hurt me.  
**_-See you on the Statue of Liberty- _**was the message taken from the original text.

The week lather Jo communicated me that Christine was safe in a new town in New Jersey and there was also a letter that communicated Sinclair's return to work. I was going to be downgraded from Chief of Detectives to Detective First Grade.  
I decided to leave my office and to play at -Cozy's Night Club- with my band. There I met an old College partner, Jill Andrews, she was there for an audition like singer for my band. I wasn't in the mood of listen to her but Noah, the guitar player, indicated me her and I talked to her about her future role and she told me how she was sorry for my loss.  
Let's say that that night someone drank too much and a riot started and Jill fell on the ground and she got hurt. Her ankle was blue and the paramedic told her to go home and rest.  
We caught a cab together and I found out she lived in Greenwich Village too on Greenwich Avenue like me, exactly where it cross with Laight Street. We were neighbors and we didn't know.  
We talked about our lives in that years and she told me she had a son from his husband, but they got divorced and that the kid would have spent the night with him.  
I paid the cabdriver and I left my bass guitar in the hall of my building, then the cellphone rang and I got out immediately to catch up Jill by saying "Hello? I know who you are! Why you don't answer?" I walked over to Jill hanging up my cellphone "As soon as I catch her, I swear that I'll switch off her the desire to make these jokes!"  
"I received a phone call similar to yours before!"  
"Let us go into your house and call my colleagues! If it is who I think it is, she isn't joking! She's chasing me to kill me!"  
In her apartment there weren't phone coverage. On a table we found a DVD and we watched it in her laptop. The Pimpernel was playing a game with us, she had been at Cozy and she had been in Jill's place before us. We were in danger: locked in that house with a bomb in the kitchen connected to the gas and the timer was activated in the moment we closed the main door behind us and it was two hours at the beginning . The only way to stop the timer was take the key that opens the lock to reach the controls of the bomb and disarm it. It hadn't been easy because there was three keys hidden in the apartment with clues to find them. If we had used the wrong key to open the lock the bomb would have exploded.  
To end it soon, we found the keys in bathroom in the middle of mousetraps, in the utility room full of excrement and the third in the kitchen, but to reach it I had to choose one of the two keys I already had in order to open kitchen's door.  
The third key was on the table and there was barbed wire everywhere.  
I remember I got the key and when we had five minutes left I reached the sink and the bomb.  
I disarmed it and I felt better.  
Flack and his men saw me lather stuck in the kitchen with one leg caught in barbed wire  
"How did you know where I was?" I asked  
"Easy: I made follow you by an escort after the Pimpernel has stolen the head of a dead Marine since 1818!"  
"You're talking about, perhaps, of Franklin Wharton?" I asked.  
Danny confirmed it was him then I asked how Jill was  
"Don't worry! She is here below to do check her out! Flack's men will bring her to her mother's place, she has already been advised!" Danny said looking at me in a natural way "There is absolutely nothing to fear! Everything is under control!" and as soon as he just finished to say that sentence there was an explosion outside the window.  
Flack looked out the window "The ambulance has just exploded!" he shouted to one of his men "Call 911! Hurry up!"  
I looked at the audience with a threatening air "This is your concept of -All under control!-?!" I shouted "Who has done the inspections outside?" no one answered.

Sinclair was back to his position after what happened, I didn't had a minute to recover from all this that Sid, Danny and Lindsay's son, was hospitalized for a meningitis. There I met Peyton, my ex-girlfriend, I hadn't learned she was back in New York. By chance I knew she had a daughter and who felt sick at kindergarten. The last time I saw her was May 19, so that baby girl could have been my daughter. Peyton didn't answered directly if that was my daughter or not, she just left.  
The worst happened when Sinclair summoned me in his office.  
"Given that you've just been downgraded, Taylor, and I'm back at the head of the Detective, I declare you officially pulled off the case of -the Scarlet Pimpernel- and you will be protected by an escort twenty four hours a day!"  
"Chief I..." Mac tried to answer back  
"It's useless! I gave you an opportunity with the support of the other Chiefs of Bureaus and the Chief of the Department and you've wasted it!" he said in a harsh tone "I was told that you didn't even once contacted the Assistant Chief Gerrard!"  
"I can assure you, Chief, that Detective Taylor did everything so that the case would turn at the end as quickly as possible!" Jo intervened  
"This doesn't mean that he has still failed in his duties! It's already a lot if I haven't taken his badge!" he said opening the door "These two cops are the indoor building escort and in other indoor locations! With them there will always be two police cruisers when you will move for work and other chores, Taylor!"  
"What can I say to convince the Department that I have done my duty?" I asked  
"Nothing! You just have to abide my orders!" Sinclair hissed. He turned then to the agents "I want that each of his movements is reported to me! No mistakes or I will fire you!" he thundered.

That afternoon I was on a Crime Scene and there was also Jo with members of the team assigned her for the case of the Pimpernel. Adam discovered an IP address which guided them there.  
I identified the corpse as Romilda Bownes and his boyfriend confirmed her identity, but Isabella Hammerback, the ME and pathologist at the morgue, wasn't agree: we were before an unknown girl.  
Jo came in the Lab for some news on Romilda Bownes and then she asked me to talk alone without -bodyguards-. She told me that soon the Pimpernel would showed up for the appointment on Liberty Island.  
"Anything else? Only that I must turn up for the appointment freeing me of the escort next week?"  
"Nothing else Mac!" Jo said disconsolate "I wish I could have been more helpful but..."  
"No! You've done your best!"  
"Since you're sitting, I would also tell you that I saw your possible daughter while I was at the hospital to Danny! Peyton was taking her home! Her name is Aubrey!"  
I winced "You saw her, really? How is she physically?"  
"On almost three years old... brunette hair and she looks nothing like you!" Jo concluded  
Sheldon came in at that moment, in which I said "Are you telling me that my daughter bears no resemblance to me in anything?!"  
"Daughter?" Sheldon said surprised "What's going on?"  
Jo and I had to explain him about Payton and in that moment I decided to take some rest at home. I told Jo and Sheldon I wasn't in the mood to risk a fight with Peyton  
"The case you are working on is tiring you, not the possibility of already being a father! Rest and you'll see that it will get better!" Jo encouraged me  
"I hate to be under close surveillance!" I said indicating the cops at the door "In a few days I'll need you to bugger them off!"  
"I will do my best to help you!" Sheldon said  
I smiled and left the room.  
That night the two cops stand one at the entrance of my apartment and the other at my bedroom door. It was like to be jailed in my place and I didn't manage to sleep.

The next day I stared at Romilda Bownwes and the girl died in the lake's pictures. They were so similar.  
Angela came to tell me why Romilda Bownes's DNA was in the record: obscene acts in public. Nothing special that I thought could have been useful.  
"I'm going to talk to Romilda Bownes's boyfriend. I'll inform him that his girlfriend is on the list of missing persons!" I said going out of his office.  
I wasn't ready to face what Angela was trying to tell me.

The following week has been full of failures until I found a letter from Sinclair on my desk, but it was an old envelop and when I opened it there was a pimpernel inside. I read everything with attention and I found out the date of the meeting with the Pimpernel.  
Danny and I were together in the crowd at 10.30 am under the Statue of Liberty. I reached the crown and I found a message in a burlap sack with the skull of a man.  
She was joking on Stella and Horatio. I had to take everything and I reached the exit.  
There was a boy alone and I called him  
"Hey! Where are your parents?"  
"Huh? Why are you asking?"  
"Aren't you too young to be here alone?" I asked looking at him  
"No, my mother told me that I can go where I want!"  
"Are you interested in money for lunch and a cab to get back home?"  
"Yeah!"  
"This guy will be near the toilets soon" I said giving him a picture of Danny "I want you to give him this and don't look inside the bag!"  
"Oh, but how much will you give me?"  
"A hundred"  
"Dollars?"  
"Yep!" I assured him "Now I must go…"  
"Thank you, err…"  
"Detective!"  
"A cop?" he asked surprised  
"Also that man is a cop, no jokes boy!"  
I saw Danny struggling with the bodyguards cops and I reached him  
"What's the problem?" I said quietly  
"Where have you been Detective? You know you cannot go for a walk alone!" one of the officers barked  
"I just went to the toilet!" I said hurriedly quietly and peaceful  
"You took too long for going to the toilet!" a policeman of the police cars said  
"Tell us the truth Detective! Where did you go?" one of the policemen almost shouted "You've been gone fifteen minutes!"  
"We know very well that you could not have spent all this time into the toilet!"  
"All right! I wanted a few minutes without you breathing down my neck! I climbed up on the statue!" I snorted  
"We could accompany you without any problems!"  
"Then you do not understand! I needed to be alone!" then I turned to Danny "Are you ready to go home? However, I warn you that we must first go in a place, if you have to go to the toilet do it now!"  
Danny understood the message and went to the toilets. After few minutes he was back and we got back to the Lab where Sinclair imposed me to wear an electronic bracelet.  
Jo was surprised to see me without cops around and I showed her the reason. I asked her to stay there with me to listen what I had discovered about Peyton and her daughter Abbey: the DNA test revealed she wasn't my daughter.  
"I cannot understand your reaction!" Jo said looking at me and making me turn in her direction "It should be better this way because it means that you do not have direct responsibility over the girl!"  
"Yes, but I confess to you that I had hoped a bit she was mine!" I said "I could have been a father to her and help Peyton!"  
"You know to be like a father to many people, do you?"  
We joked for a while and then we went to eat something.

During the afternoon I was sitting on the stair at the main entrance of the building when Danny saw me.  
Danny invited me with the others for a drink, but I showed him the electronic bracelet and he told me to don't worry because he knew how to crack the system.  
Danny took more time than I expected. It was late that evening and the program of going out together sunk (Flack, Jamie and Angela fixed other programs).  
I was sitting in my office when the phone vibrated. I watched the MMS on the display, the number was unknown. By a video I knew Christine had been kidnapped and she was suffering. I thought immediately the pregnancy would have been closed to its end soon.  
An address on a black background appeared. The video ended thus.  
I looked in the direction of Danny who had just finished tinkering with the transmitter and entered in  
"I've got to do something before coming to the bar tonight!"  
"All right! You can go wherever you want! The bracelet will send a fake signal to Sinclair! You can feel comfortable!"  
I stood up and went to the elevators, I descended the stairs to the garage and got into the car.  
My intention was to save Christine, Stella and Horatio even it would have cost my life.

When I reached the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island I took a deep breath and I drew my gun out.  
I descended the stairs and I entered a disused bathroom. In one corner I saw Horatio, who was panting and noticed that he had an ankle tied.  
I approached lighting the torch I carried with me "Horatio! Can you hear me?"  
"Mac?" a woman's voice, hoarse and weak, asked from the other side of the bath "I'm not crazy! It's really you!"  
"Stella!" I said reaching her "Your hands are covered with blood! Let me see!"  
"She is here! Find Christine, take her with you and run faster as you can!"  
"I won't leave anyone here! Where is Christine imprisoned?" I asked  
"Mac behind you!" Stella exclaimed, but I haven't had time to turn around because I was stroked on the head and I fell to the ground.  
When I opened my eyes, I discovered to have slightly blurred vision and my head was heavy. I looked around trying to get up and at that moment I realized I was tied to something with my arms  
"Please stand still Mac!" I recognized immediately that familiar voice  
"Christine?!" I said trying to turn around  
"Our handcuffs have been jammed, Mac! You're hurting me!" she said gritting her teeth  
"How are you?"  
"She wants to kill us Mac! She said she would've come back with the necessary! She have also injected morphine into your neck! I'm afraid that this is the end!"  
I blinked for a while and the view seemed back to normal "Okay, now listen to me! We'll be fine! I sent a message to Jo and the others before coming here! Have faith!" I looked at my feet and I saw that they were securely chained to the ground "Even, you've got your feet tied, Christine?" I suddenly felt me to pull back and I heard a sharp cry of Christine "What's the matter?"  
"Not now! Why now?!" she said crying  
"What not now?" I wanted to know what was going on  
"The waters got broken!"  
"That wouldn't had really to happen!" I said, who knew exactly when the first pains have begun?  
"I'm feeling cold!"  
"I'm feeling cold too!" Mac said "You'll see that they will find us!"  
"Yes! They'll find you! Both dead!" a girl said coming in.  
I looked at her surprised "Romilda Bowns?"  
The girl that was the cause of many problems was the same girl I was investigating on.  
"You have a good memory Detective Taylor! How are the after-effects of morphine? Do you still be high?"  
"Let go of my wife! It's me who you want!"  
Romilda came forward holding a knife and pointing it at me in my throat  
"You of the police contributed to kill my mother! I will make you suffer as I can, until midnight!" she stepped back "But if there's one thing I cannot stand are the cries!" she said taking two bandages "I hope you like shotguns! At midnight, Detective, you will take a shot in the forehead!" she said placing the weapon in front of Mac and moving with a second gun on the side Christine "While our beloved Christine will take a shot in the chest!" she stood in front of both with bandages in her hand "The nice thing is that no one will hear you scream!"  
Romilda Bownes gagged us and left noticing with pleasure that Christine was in labor  
"Look at you! You won't be so lucky this time, Detective!" she stepped behind the refile "Is that the third or the fourth time that you got kidnapped?" she giggled "Of course you cannot answer! Even if you know that your team will be here soon, you won't survive! Goodnight to both!" and she left.  
Christine tossed around me several times, I felt helplessness.  
We went on in that way for an hour, more or less.  
"23:50!" I heard Jamie open the door "They're here! come here!" she exclaimed.  
Flack rushed inside with Jamie  
"Don't worry Mac! Don't shake like that! " Flack said freeing me from the chains on my feet and then he moved to the handcuffs helped by Jamie, who was releasing Christine.  
As soon as I had my hands free I tried to take off the bandage from my mouth and I found that it was tied to the one of Christine. I tried to wave my arms in vain, Flack didn't understand what I meant. He was risking his life. In a minute or two the refile would have shot.  
Jamie examined thoroughly Christine "Don! Christine is about to give birth! Call Hawkes!"  
Flack released me and Christine from the gags "Now can you tell me what's wrong?!"  
"Get away of my way, Flack!" I shouted  
"What?"  
I shifted Flack standing up and covering him with myself. Fractions of a second after it warned two shots  
"Mac!" Christine screamed terrified  
"Oh, no Mac! Let me see!" Flack said looking at the my shoulder dragging me away and making me sit on the only chair in the room "You still have the bullet inside!"  
I was worried because Christine heard me screaming few seconds before and the pain was extreme. I couldn't bent my arm.  
"What hurt in my back!" Jamie said "Luckily I had my jacket! How is Mac?"  
"Fine! I'm still in one piece!" I said rising and looking Sheldon enter "What timing, Dr. Hawkes!" and I fell back sitting on the chair.  
Sheldon leaned on me and Flack called with the radio Jo "Jo, we found them! Where's the ambulance?"  
"Are they injured?"  
"Mac yes, to the right shoulder, and Christine is delivering!"  
"But now we need to get out of here!" I ruled  
Sheldon tore off a piece of his shirt and laid it on my wound folded in four  
"Flack hold it down and, if you can, take away his jacket!" he left us in the corner of the room and he examined the conditions of Christine "Christine won't be moved from here! I can see the head of the baby! The ladder from which we descended is narrow and spiral! We cannot carry her in these conditions!"  
"So the baby will be born here, are you trying to tell me this?" I asked. I was worried and I couldn't hide it very well.  
"Exactly!"  
Flack was looking at the blood which was getting out from my shoulder and he helped me to take off my jacket and then he go back to press on the wound it just hurt like hell and he must had seen my expression because he exclaimed "You need a doctor's Mac! You gotta get out!"  
"No, I won't leave her here alone!" I said gesturing with my head Christine panting  
"Mac, where are you?" Christine cried  
"I'm here! Calm down! I won't leave you alone!" I rose from the chair and, after have done quickly few steps, I leaned to Christine's side "It'll be okay! Have faith!"  
She nodded and added "Mac, I'm scared!"  
"What does it mean that you are scared?" I told her incredulously "Is there something troubling you?"  
"I don't want to lose McKenna!" she confessed to me.  
Sheldon took off his jacket "It's better if you lie down! Don't worry and everything will be fine!" he assured her "I can catch a glimpse of the head!" he turned toward Jamie "Have you ever helped a woman in delivery or assisted to it?"  
"No, never ever!" Jamie admitted  
"You've only to count the seconds between the contractions! Trust in me!" then he turned to me "Raise her head and make her feel comfortable!"  
Christine cried by leaning with her head on my laps  
"That was a strong one! At the next one, Christine, you have to push, all right?" Sheldon explained  
"Yeah! Understood!" she answered looking me in the eyes  
"The head is nearly out! Hold on!" I told her after I leaned out to look "You're doing it well!"  
Christine took a deep breath and pushed  
"Don't stop! Don't stop!" Sheldon said taking off his jacket "A bit more, it lacks little!"  
Christine cried strong squeezing my right hand. I was nearly to scream too.  
"Very good! The head is out!" Sheldon said with enthusiasm  
"Oh my goodness!" Flack gasped "Remind me to never see again such a thing!"  
Christine looked at me right in the eyes "I can't do it!" she said crying  
"Yes, instead! Hold on and don't give up!"  
"The baby can't go back! You'll see that now he will be born! Push!" Sheldon encouraged her.  
Christine gritted her teeth catching her breath and pushed shouting  
"He is born!" Sheldon said by wrapping the baby in the jacket and a wailing filled the room.  
I glanced up to look at the baby who ended in Jamie's arms who said "But I can't hold babies!"  
"You're just doing it!" Sheldon said returning on Christine and announcing "There's another head! In a few minutes also the second will be born!"  
Christine looked at me, as surprised as me, and she panted "Are they seriously two?"  
I squeezed Christine's hand "They're two! C'mon! It's almost over!"  
"I'm tired Mac!"  
"I can see it! You will hold them lather!" I kissed her sweaty forehead "I'm here with you!"  
Christine had a contraction and she pushed as strong as she could with a shout, she had to stop for a while up shivering. With a last push also the second and unexpected baby had born and the second wailing didn't long in coming.  
I smiled and kissed Christine on her forehead "You have been good! I'm pride of you!"  
Flack keep immediately out his jacket and handed it to Sheldon who laid carefully the little bundle into my left arm "Look here!" he invited me.  
I moved a bit aside the jacket "Christine! It's a girl!"  
Christine smiled "May I see her and McKenna?"  
Jamie came up "C'mon take him! I think he wants his mom!"  
Christine looked at the baby taking him in her arms "Hi little one!"  
I showed her the baby girl who I was holding firmly with my left arm.  
Flack leaned down and looked at the babies with a tenderly look "Congratulation Mac and Christine! They're really wonderful!"  
Danny arrived out of breath "The ambulance is here!" he stopped in the doorway looking at me hold a baby with only an arm and Christine another one "They're two!" he smiled "Wow! It's incredible! Congratulation!"  
We had to get out of our own because the wall couldn't be tore down.  
There's no need to say that Sinclair was a bit hungry for the electronic bracelet. But I felt better to know that we were all alive. I hoped that Jo had arrested also Romilda Bownes. I was ashamed to learn that it wasn't so. Thank God, Stella was feeling good and Horatio reached the hospital.  
Christine looked at me as I step on the ambulance "Are you fine?"  
"Now that McKenna and the little girl were born and we're going to the hospital, yes!" I looked at the newborns lying on the breast of my wife, the male opened his eyes a little bit and he almost seemed to stare me with curiosity  
"Hey number three! What's up?"  
"How have you just called the baby?" Jo asked stepping to the ambulance surprising me "I'm coming to the hospital with you! I'll be your -escort-" she said coming up "Let's go!" she ordered to one of the paramedics.

At the hospital they removed the bullet from my shoulder and, immediately after, I reached Christine in her bedroom. Peyton came in with the twins.  
"What are you doing here, Mac? You should be in the other hallway!" she exclaimed  
"I'm here because I want to stay with my wife. Anyway, how are they?"  
"You're lucky they're good! When I'll be back I want you out of here!"  
Christine opened her eyes "Mac?" she tried to seat "Mac, how are you? How are our kids?"  
"Ssssst! Don't worry they are here" I smiled at her  
"I thought the worst for a while!" She looked at the twins "How can we name the girl?"  
"I don't know!" I answered  
"Eh-em , Eh-em!" Payton looked at us "I'm still be here!"  
Christine looked at Peyton "Sorry, Doc!"  
"Call me Peyton! After all I'm one of the former girlfriend of Mac!"  
I looked at her glumly.  
"Thank you for your help, Peyton!" Christine smiled and we heard the girl crying  
"C'mon Christine, take her up!" I invited her  
"Well, I must go now! See you later!" Peyton greeted us.  
I stared at my daughter.  
"The doctor told me they would have may be hungry. I don't know what to do…"  
"You mean, you don't know if you have to feed them or not?" I asked.  
Christine simply nodded  
"I'll call the doctor!" and I stood up feeling the wound the shoulder to pulsate and the pain invaded all my right arm. I turned to the door, as Christine couldn't see my expression. I breathed deep and I called the doctor who came immediately in the room telling Christine she must feed the babies.  
I looked how the doctor helped her and how my daughter suckled.  
The doctor left telling Christine to do the same even with the boy and then he would she would be back to know the names of the kids.  
"How about Faith?" Christine asked interrupting the flow of my thoughts  
"Why?"  
"Because when we were close to death you told me to have faith! I believed at you and I trusted in your team!"  
I smiled "I thought that Trinity would have been good as well! I believe someone was protecting us!"  
"Yes, sure someone was doing it!" Christine looked at the girl finishing to suckle "Do you want to name her Trinity?"  
"I like also Faith…"  
"So?" Christine asked  
"Faith Trinity!" I smiled  
"We have reached an agreement! I cannot wait to see the faces of my parents! To them I steel be dead, now we will shock them even more with twins!" Christine smiled in return  
"Mac, go in your room to rest! I know that sleep is a word unknown to you, but you must do it! We have made anesthesia to remove the bullet from your shoulder!" Peyton said entering  
"Five minutes?" I asked imploring  
"If you tell me what you were talking about!" Peyton smiled  
"We decided to call the little girl Faith Trinity!" I said  
"We were not aware of having twins!"  
"The important thing is that you have chosen a name together and in record time! To choose Aubrey it took me a lot: two days!" Peyton smiled "Five minutes past, Mac! Go to bed!"  
"At your orders doctor!" I said greeting with a kiss Christine and looking Jo enter. I greeted her with a nod "Take care of Christine while I'm not here!"  
"Go to rest!" Jo said.

I was in my bed I felt comforted the fact that the twins and Christine were good, that also Stella was good and Adam was with her. I was trying to don't think about the pain and to sleep when I heard the doctors walking in the hallway while they were coming out the surgery  
"We need to inform relatives and friends that Lieutenant Horatio Caine is dead!"  
I began to cry in silence "I'll take you, Pimpernel! Thou shalt not hurt anyone ever again! Wait till I get out of here!"  
I felt helpless and I thought that was also my fault.  
The next day I got informed that the Pimpernel had been founded dead.  
My personal mission became to find out who killed her.


	7. Chapter 7

**History of an FBI agent**

Of course I wasn't ready for what I found out on February: my wife an FBI agent.  
The week before my mother passed by and Christine reached me in Chicago for the funeral, even if also her mother was gone few days before and I couldn't be present at her funeral rites.  
I discovered everything the week before Valentine's Day. It was unbelievable because I hadn't took notice of anything.  
We met up each other at the ball of the FBI where Jo and I were invited after our collaboration in solving a case of a school bus kidnapping. (also Lucy Messer, my goddaughter, was one of the victims).  
What the FBI chiefs wanted was Christine back to her duties and for assuring them that they wanted to kill me. They thought that, given that I wasn't aware of the real identity of Christine, we would got divorced and, once I was alone, everything would have been easy.  
J.J., her partner and leader of her team, and Jo invited us to talk while dancing.  
We were dancing Tango and we came face to face  
"What is your plan agent?" I asked on her lips  
"Why are you panting? Is tiredness or..."  
"The second you were going to say! How can we save ourselves?" I asked  
"Easy!" Christine said lowering her leg and doing another twirl "We will satisfy my bosses, in part!"  
"I don't want you to risk your life! I do not like that!"  
"As it happens, now you know how I feel every time you leave home! Admit that you never thought about it?"  
I had no answer and I decided to keep dancing driving with harmony Christine, leaving myself to pervade by emotions and I decided to follow the rules: don't look her in the eyes.  
When the song ended she whispered in my ear "Why don't we go upstairs? So you can stop panting!"  
"You just told me you're an FBI agent! Do you think I'm in the mood to…"  
"Your physical reactions are telling me that you are! Do wanna hide it to me?"  
She was right and I'm a bad actor, so we went upstairs.  
I was hugging Christine in the bed and our cell phones rang. They wanted us to work together. We took they up on this challenge and we made out just fine.  
Let's say she saved my life when I was about to be eaten up by a tiger.

I had to work with Christine again and also with Erika, her mate and also widow of one Marine who was with me in Beirut.  
We had to rescue Dalia, the future agent that would have replaced Christine. It had been strange to work with my wife and Erika but, after have saved Dalia, I can say that to work with Christine isn't has bad as it seems, even if lather, that day ,she hadn't been stabbed in one shoulder by the murderer of a boy.  
Things changed after the kidnapping of the twins.  
They warned me I was risking to develop a tumor after an injection of dangerous viruses. I had to stay away from home because I didn't want the children to have any disease.  
I was going to pay Christine a visit when I saw Danny and Lindsay out of my house. They were there to close the case of the Pimpernel which was on my desk.  
"I saw Danny and Lindsay out here!" I told Christine closing the door  
"You know why they were here?"  
I nodded and I took a few steps forward  
"I wish I could say that I would have to ask you some questions! I've been repeating it to myself for two months! I never had the courage to ask you anything due fear! I was terrified that if I had asked you something you would have remembered what you had to go through in there!"  
"For three weeks I was alone with the Pimpernel who was pointing a gun at me and for three days I have been a victim according to the official version! The Pimpernel kidnapped me as soon as I left the Crime Lab! Nor the FBI nor the police have been able to protect me! I was alone and scared!"  
I looked into her eyes "Why didn't you ever tell me the truth?"  
"Because J.J. asked me to lie! I've already told Lindsay and Danny which in my opinion it was him to kill Romilda Bownes!" I came close and Christine sat in my arms "I'll never be completely free from the FBI! I tried to build me a normal life in the long months where I have not had missions, but it was useless!"  
"No!" I retorted "You met me!" I looked into her face "I have learned about you in these three years! I know what you like and what not! I know that in the morning you want to choose clothes to put on when you just gotten up and that prepare them the night before is something unacceptable for you! I also know that when you get angry you wrinkle your nose, you crumple your forehead and if you've got something in your hands you slam it on the table!" I stroked her cheek "About the fact that you have risked your life in various missions? I am not interested! To me, you're not a former secret agent, but my wife! I love you and this is enough for me!"  
Yes, the Pimpernel had been killed by J.J., that chapter was finally closed.

Later that day, Christine received J.J.'s visit in her restaurant and they argued. J.J. left leaving her the following message  
**_-You have invented the most useful weapon! If you don't ask for a divorce to your former Marine, I'll use it on him! How does it sounds?-_**  
The next week, when I got back home, Christine explained me everything, but I wasn't expecting to see the micro-bomb invented by my wife in action that morning! It was Dalia's first mission and with her there was also J.J. and I thought they would have reached Christine's restaurant.  
I wasn't wrong and I heard a conversation between my wife and Dalia.  
"You stopped a hijacker! Think about this!"  
"I cannot think that I saved dozens of lives! I just think to the trigger and to the bomb that by this time..."  
Christine nodded "Mac just called me! I begged him not to meddle in this and that it was your first mission!"  
Dalia glanced up "But he recognized us!"  
Christine sat down next to her "The only time I had to kill intentionally, it was during my first mission! I was eighteen and I was terrified! At least you've killed by shooting! I killed my first target with a kiss!" Christine looked at J.J. huffing and leave the room and then she went on "Before he died I can guarantee you that a lot of time has passed! I abandoned the hotel room with tears in my eyes!"  
Dalia was greatly troubled "You mean that you had to..."  
"Yes! I've never told it to anyone! Not even to J.J.! Everyone was convinced that after the kiss I went away, but that despicable person has prevented me from do that!"  
"I guess that neither your husband knows anything about this story!"  
"No!" Christine admitted  
"Christine!" my voice boomed behind her and she shivered recognizing me  
"Mac! What are you doing here?! How did you get in?!"  
"From the back door!" she could feel the disappointment in my voice and she heard me take a few steps forward "I have heard it all! I pray you to look into my eyes!" Christine turned in my direction terrified "I'm not angry with you! I understand why you didn't want to tell me about your first mission!" I said sympathetic "I'm angry about the fact that you knew! You knew of the mission of your protected today and you have not warned me!"  
"I have been told just ten minutes before the whole thing happened and I sent a message to Flack!" Christine burst out  
"It's true! Neither I knew that today I would have had my first official mission!" Dalia interjected "-Initiations- are like that!"  
I looked at the shocked and frightened girl "Are you okay?"  
"Not really! I cannot understand anything!"  
"At least you have not witnessed at it!" I said then turning to my wife "Isabella is performing the autopsy on corpse, could she find something?"  
"She won't find anything!" Christine assured him.  
Of course J.J. wasn't happy to see me and he behaved in the arrogant way possible she was mad with Dalia and also with Christine. When he left carrying away Dalia Christine started to cry.

When things seemed do change in better I had to leave for a Forensic Course in Italy, Rome, with Adam where we met D.B. Russel and Marc Andrea Mancini.  
While I wasn't at home the impossible happened: Danny woke up after a riot he stopped in a bar without any memory of the night before and Christine was questioned by Sinclair. Of course Christine received another message from J.J. with a bomb she created and my picture. She wrote everything in an email for telling me they caught two of the Danny's rapists and that they were going to leave him with them.  
To end the case they needed my help. It ended with a needle in my neck and some punches of Flack, but we got all the rapists.

A week later, I found a little girl on a crime scene. She was the only survivor and witness of a family massacre.  
I took her home with me and she liked Christine, but it was clear that we couldn't keep her. I decided to introduce her to Adam, I knew that before Stella's death they had talked a bit about adoptions, and the girl seemed to like him too.  
Adam saved her from the killer who murdered her parents and finally he adopted her.

The day I was promoted Inspector by Sinclair, I found out by him that Christine was involved in a mission in Canada instead of Dalia. I was warned on the fact that Dalia needed support because she wasn't ready for a so important thing.  
While I was getting ready to leave for Canada, I heard noises near Jo's place and it was Ellie. She was going out and suddenly she was dragged in an alley.  
I followed her without pulling out my gun  
"NYPD! I know you're here! Let the girl go!"  
Someone came at my shoulders and put a handkerchief soaked in chloroform on my face.  
When I woke up there was just me and Ellie somewhere. I was blindfolded and when Ellie and I herd footsteps in the hallway, I got ready to react. Luckily it was Sheldon, they found us by chance.  
The case of a mad teacher who loved eating students of the high school was over.  
I was happy for not being ended on her menu.  
I was surprised to find Christine at the precinct.  
"I was about to come to take you home! You never told me that it was a mission in which you would be forced to step in! What did you do to your hand?" I asked her.  
Christine looked down at her bandaged left hand  
"It's just a scratch! What about you? You leave the kids to Adam in order to pick me up and then, for a mishap, you play the hero?!"  
I caressed her cheek  
"Don't get angry like that and don't cry! We need to establish new rules!"  
Christine verge of tears paused and she sighed  
"I think we need some time to calm down! I'm going to take the kids and I'll see you at home! Have your wound medicated in the ER!" and she left me greeting Jo and Ellie with a smile  
"Mac, I don't like that you lie each other and that the unexpected happens in your relationship! You have two kids!" Jo said.  
I got back home after coming out by the hospital. Everything got fixed again.

Of course, before Easter I risked my life at lab due to a Japanese Gang. She as investigating them too.  
I got in touch with Christine thanks to Reed and she saved the life of all the people in the lab.  
I ended in hospital with Det. Flack and Det. Messer.  
Flack and I came out in a week and Danny come back home after Easter. In time to find out that Maxwell, the murderer I had to investigate on Easter day, escaped.  
I was surprised when I came to know that Danny arrested him while he was coming out from the hospital.  
What I couldn't figure out, was that Maxwell had planned an attack to the FBI building, that the cuse of the problems we were having was J.J.  
Yeah a shock!  
It was the first time that a message with threats wasn't for me, but for Christine.  
J.J. planned it all.  
My team has been destroyed. My friends died. I risked to lose my wife. The son that Christine was attending died…  
What's left is my friend Jo with a baby incoming, Christine that feels responsible for the death of Erika and Dalia, my cancer and the fact that I won't be able to take care of the twins.  
I'll pass next months in a hospital. The doctors want to keep me constantly under observation.  
Christine now has to fix up latest things for the FBI. She has to explain the whole thing of J.J., but I'm happy she will be definitively out of that world.

Now what I've to do is to is to fight with my feelings and I'd like to tell you that our meeting didn't been as useful as I thought… this is the last write you'll receive.  
Goodbye forever, Doctor.


	8. Chapter 8

**Epilogue of the doctor**

The last Inspector Taylor's write reached me by mail. So, after I picked out the letter from my mailbox and I read the letter, I rushed to add it into the book.  
Mac Taylor needs this therapy and I hope he will be able to resume it as soon as possible. I'm willing to come at hospital to follow him during chemotherapy.  
That all what can I offer!  
Dr. M

_Author Notes: _

Thank you so much to who arrived to read until the end of this chapter.

I'm "new" on this site and it's my first story in English.

I write often in Italian on EFP but now I decided that it was the time to try even in English

(I was tired of reading only)

This story is connected to CSI:NY season 10 posted on a blog by me (you find all the info on my profile)

Ah! Yes, I'm Italian so, if there are some typos in the story, I beg you to forgive me...


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